Michael Corleone
Category:Characters | aliases = Don Michael Corleone | film = | franchise = The Godfather | image = | notability = | type = | race = | gender = | base of operations = Long Island, New York | known relatives = | status = | born = 1920 | died = 1997 | 1st appearance = The Godfather (1972) | final appearance = The Godfather: Part III (1990) | actor = Al Pacino }} Michael Corleone is a fictional mafia crime boss featured in The Godfather novel and film series. He was played by actor Al Pacino and first appeared in the 1972 film The Godfather. He was also the main character in the film's sequels, The Godfather: Part II in 1974 and The Godfather: Part III in 1990. Wikipedia entry The Godfather In contrast with his brothers, he wants nothing to do with the Corleone "family business", wanting instead to lead a more Americanized life. Vito Corleone does not want Michael to be involved in the Mafia, either, hoping instead that his favorite son will enter politics. When the United States enters World War II in 1941, Michael drops out of Dartmouth College and enlists in the Marine Corps, and fights in the Pacific War. During the war, Michael is promoted to the rank of Captain and awarded the Navy Cross for bravery. In 1944 his picture is printed in Life magazine with a photo layout of his heroism. He is discharged early in 1945 to recover from a disabling wound; unbeknownst to him, his father had arranged his release. Michael stays home for a few weeks, then, without consulting his family, reenters Dartmouth, and so leaves his father's house. He returns to attend Connie's wedding with his girlfriend, Kay Adams, a former classmate. When his father is nearly assassinated by drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo just before Christmas 1945, he is thrust into the world he has avoided for so long. He reaffirms his loyalty at his father's bedside, then thwarts a second attempt on his father's life by Sollozzo and corrupt NYPD Captain McCluskey, who breaks his jaw. Later, arguing that Sollozzo will likely take another run at Vito, he volunteers to kill both Sollozzo and McCluskey. Sonny, who is running the family in their father's absence, refuses at first; it has long been a hard and fast rule in the Mafia that policemen are not to be harmed. However, Michael convinces Sonny that since McCluskey is a corrupt police officer serving as Sollozzo's bodyguard, he has crossed into their world and is fair game. After caporegime Peter Clemenza plants a gun for him, Michael kills both men at a restaurant. Following the murders, Michael flees to Sicily, where he lives for two years under the watch of family friend Don Tommasino. While there, he falls in love with and marries a young woman named Apollonia. A few months later, he learns that Sonny has been murdered. As he and Apollonia prepare to move to a villa in Siracusa, she is killed by a car bomb intended for Michael, planted by his corrupt bodyguard, Fabrizio. Michael returns to the United States in the spring of 19513 and becomes fully involved in the family's criminal enterprises, taking Sonny's role as Vito's heir apparent. Soon afterwards, he and his father plan to wipe out the other New York Dons, deliberately allowing them to whittle away at the Corleone family's interests so that they will not expect the blow when it comes. At the same time, he convinces his father that it is time to remove the family from the Mafia. Then, more than a year after his return, he reunites with Kay and, promising to make the family legitimate within five years, he marries her. Within two years, they have two children, Anthony and Mary. After his father goes into semi-retirement in 1954, Michael becomes operating head of the family. One of his first acts is to try to buy out casino owner Moe Greene's stake in the casino, intending to move his family to Nevada. Michael officially becomes Don after his father's death in 1955. Before his death, Vito had warned Michael that Emilio Barzini, head of a rival family, would make an attempt on Michael's life under the pretense of organizing a meeting to make peace between the two families. After caporegime Salvatore Tessio inadvertently reveals that he had conspired with Barzini against him, Michael decides to "settle all family business" on the day he stands godfather to Connie's son. He orders the murders of the leaders of the New York Mafia's other Dons: Barzini, Philip Tattaglia, Carmine Cuneo, and Victor Stracci, as well as Greene, Tessio, and Carlo Rizzi, Connie's abusive husband, who had earlier set Sonny up to be murdered. In one stroke, Michael reestablishes the Corleone family as the most powerful crime family in the nation, and makes a reputation for himself as being even more cunning and ruthless than his father. When Connie finds out about Carlo's death, she flies into a rage and accuses Michael of killing him. Michael dismisses her accusations as hysteria, and when pressed by Kay, denies any involvement in the murder. Moments later, Michael meets with his capos, where Clemenza greets him as "Don Corleone" and kisses his hand much as he did with his father. The Godfather: Part II .]] In ''The Godfather Part II, set in 1958-1959, Michael is now in his late-30s. Frank Pentangeli, head of the former Clemenza regime, now runs the family's business in New York. Although Michael is now firmly established as the most powerful Mafia leader in the nation, he is still determined to make the family legitimate. His efforts at redeeming the family have been largely unsuccessful, however, because his many enemies (and his own growing obsession with revenge) have kept him involved in the criminal underworld. He has begun to work out a deal with Hyman Roth, his father's former business partner, over control of casino operations. The night of his son Anthony's First Communion, an attempt is made on Michael's life. Michael concludes that Roth was behind the assassination attempt, but suspects that he had help from a mole in the Corleone family. He decides to make Roth think they still have a good business relationship as a ploy to find out who Roth paid to set up the hit. As part of this subterfuge, he orders Pentangeli to settle a dispute with Roth's business partners, the Rosato Brothers. When Pentangeli meets with the Rosato Brothers, they try to kill him, but he survives, Meanwhile, Michael, Roth and Michael's brother Fredo travel to Cuba to forge a partnership with Fulgencio Batista that will allow them to be free to conduct their operations in Cuba without interference from the authorities, in return for generous payments to the Cuban government. While in Cuba, Michael sends his bodyguard to eliminate Roth on New Year's Eve, but the bodyguard is killed by soldiers in the midst of the attempt. That night, Michael discovers that Fredo is the traitor within the family, and informs him of this fact at the stroke of midnight. During the New Year's Eve festivities, victorious rebel forces enter Havana, forcing Batista into exile and the crime bosses out of the country, their plans in Cuba ruined. Fredo, afraid of his brother, refuses to flee back to America with Michael. Roth, meanwhile, escapes to Miami. Meanwhile, Pentangeli, who believes that Michael ordered his death, is set to testify against Michael in the Senate's investigation of organized crime. However, Michael arranges for Pentageli's brother Vincenzo to travel from Sicily to attend the hearings. Vincenzo and Frank exchange a glance just before the hearing comes to order. Understanding the threat, Pentageli renounces his earlier sworn statements, throwing the hearings into chaos and effectively ending the government's case against Michael. Michael meets with Fredo, who reveals that Roth's right-hand man, Johnny Ola, had promised to make him rich independently of the family if he informed on Michael, and that he withheld key information about the Senate investigation. He also reveals that he resents having been "stepped over" in favor of his brother; he feels that he should have taken over the family after their father's death. Michael disowns Fredo, and tells bodyguard Al Neri that nothing is to happen to his brother while their mother is alive — the implication being that once she dies, Neri is to murder Fredo. Kay finally accepts that Michael will always live in a world of crime and violence, and decides to leave him and take the children with her. Michael asks her to reconsider, but Kay reveals that what she had initially told Michael was a miscarriage was in fact an abortion; she tells Michael that she does not want to bring another child into the Corleone family. Michael flies into a rage, hits Kay in the face, and banishes her from the family. They divorce later that year, with Michael keeping custody of the children. Following the death of their mother, and at the behest of his sister Connie, Michael appears to reconcile with Fredo. It is only a ploy to draw him in, however; soon afterward, Neri murders Fredo on Michael's orders. At the same time, Michael sends Hagen to convince Pentageli to commit suicide in order to spare his family, and sends capo Rocco Lampone to kill a heavily guarded Roth at John F. Kennedy International Airport upon his return to the U.S. The film ends with Michael's recollections of a surprise birthday party for his father on December 7th, 1941. Prior to his father's arrival, Michael told the family that he had dropped out of college and enlisted in the Marines. Fredo had been the only one in the family to support the decision. When Vito arrives off-screen, everyone leaves the table to greet him except for Michael, who sits by himself. The parting shot in the film is of Michael sitting outdoors at the Corleone Lake Tahoe compound, alone. The Godfather: Part III .]] In ''The Godfather Part III, set in 1979-80, Michael, now in his late 50s, has moved back to New York and taken great steps to make the family legitimate. He has turned over control of his New York criminal interests to longtime enforcer Joey Zasa, sold his gambling interests to the other Mafia families and reorganized his vast business holdings as the "Corleone Group". Wracked with guilt over his ruthless rise to power, he is using his wealth to restore his reputation through numerous acts of charity. The Vatican has named him a Commander of the Order of Saint Sebastian for his good works. That same day, he has an uneasy reunion with Kay, who tells him that she doesn't want Anthony to have anything to do with the Corleone "legacy", and that both she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo's death. Michael's new connection to the Church gives him the opportunity to take over the large property company, Immobiliare. He is already the company's largest shareholder, and offers to buy the Vatican's 25 percent share of the company, which will give him controlling interest. He also takes Sonny's illegitimate son Vincent Mancini, a soldier in Zasa's crew, as his protegé. The relationship is not without friction, however. Michael is deeply troubled by Vincent's impulsiveness and fiery temper (inherited from his father), but even moreso by his romance with Michael's daughter Mary. Remembering how he lost Apollonia over 30 years earlier, Michael fears Vincent's growing involvement in the "family business" will put Mary in danger.<4 On the night Michael announces that he is dissolving his gambling empire, Zasa wipes out most of The Commission in an elaborate helicopter attack in Atlantic City; Michael escapes with Vincent's help. Michael quickly realizes that his longtime friend, Don Altobello, was actually in on the conspiracy to kill him. Traumatized by the attack, Michael has a diabetic stroke, leaving him briefly incapacitated. (Coppola reveals in his audio commentary that Michael was seen drinking a lot of water in the first two films—subtle hints that he was a diabetic.4) In his absence, Connie gives Vincent and Neri the go-ahead to kill Zasa. Michael later returns to Sicily to watch Anthony make his operatic debut at the Teatro Massimo. Suspecting that Altobello might try to make another attempt on his life, he has Vincent go to Altobello and pretend to defect. He takes Kay on a tour of Sicily, during which he asks her forgiveness. Each admits to the other that they still love each other and always will. At the same time, the Immobiliare deal stalls, supposedly because Pope Paul VI himself must sign off on it. Michael eventually learns that the Immobiliare deal is actually an elaborate swindle concocted by Immobiliare chairman Licio Lucchesi, who has schemed with Vatican Bank head Archbishop Gilday and accountant Frederick Keinszig to steal a fortune from the Vatican Bank and use Michael's "investment" to cover their tracks. Hoping to salvage the deal, Michael seeks the assistance of Don Tommasino, who directs him to Cardinal Lamberto (the future Pope John Paul I). With Lamberto's prodding, Michael makes his first confession in 30 years, breaking down in tears while admitting that he ordered Fredo's murder. Lamberto tells Michael that it is just that he suffers for his terrible sins, but that he still has a chance for redemption. Michael soon becomes aware of an assassin, Mosca, whom Altobello, in league with the plotters, had hired to kill him. Mosca kills Tommasino, and Michael vows before his old friend's coffin to sin no more. Vincent reports that Lucchesi is behind the attempts on Michael's life, working hand in glove with Altobello. Vincent insists on striking back. Weary of the bloody, lonely life of a Don, Michael retires and makes his nephew the new head of the family, on condition that he end the relationship with Mary. That night, Michael, reconciled with Kay and Anthony, watches his son perform in the opera Cavalleria Rusticana. At the same time, Vincent, with Michael's tacit blessing, wipes out Lucchesi, Gilday and Keinszig in a bloody wave of murders. That same night, however, Mosca inadvertently kills Mary in an assassination attempt on her father. Mary's death breaks Michael's spirit, and he cries out in agony over her corpse. He returns to Bagheria, Sicily, where he dies alone. Notes & Trivia * Don Michael Corleone redirects here. * See also External Links * * Michale Corleone at Wikipedia * Michael Corleone at The Godfather Wiki References ---- Category:Godfather, The (1972)/Characters Category:Godfather: Part II, The (1974)/Characters Category:Godfather: Part III, The (1990)/Characters Category:1920/Character births Category:1997/Character deaths Category:Businesspeople Category:Mobsters Category:Al Pacino